Sunday, June 4, 2017

Phidion – The Throes of Scourge

After many years without a full-length,
Swedish death metal group Phidion has finally unleashed their first studio
record, entitled “The Throes of Scourge”. Sweden’s history with death metal is
interesting because there are two very distinctive sounds coming from it. The
old-school bands like Entombed, Dismember, and others are of course famed for
their HM-2 crunch, yet the bands that came just a few years later created the
classic Gothenburg melothrash sound. Bands in 2017 often cling to one side or
another, but Phidion manages to incorporate elements of both successfully. In
general, they lean much more towards the old-school death metal side of things,
with an eternally heavy guitar tone, yet there’s a certain catchiness to their
riffs that brings memories of bands like Dark Tranquillity.

Phidion’s ability to diversify their sound
a little bit keeps “The Throes of Scourge” a compelling listen throughout.
Tracks like “Swarming Spectres” and “Derek’s Don’t Run” almost have a
bounciness to them, amidst a flurry of blast beats and tremolo-picking. The
band doesn’t ever get too technical (true to the Swedish sound), but there are
some slightly busier riffs in a track like “Anthropophagus”. A lot of the time
when Phidion isn’t using tremolo-picking, however, they opt for heavily muted,
chunky power chords.

“The Throes of Scourge” does many things
well, and there are few faults to it. I’ve always been more partial to the
Floridian style of death metal, so Phidion’s strengths don’t necessarily line
up with my tastes, but that doesn’t make this a bad release at all. It’s
faithful to the genre’s forefathers without being a direct ripoff or clone, and
the result is something that should appeal to most fans of old-school death
metal. The slight nods to more melodeath sounds often come through the
thrashiness of certain riffs, and if you’re into old-school death metal, you
probably have a good background in thrash, so those riffs will definitely be
appreciated. All in all, “The Throes of Scourge” is a very solid effort that
will be appreciated by most death metal fans!